What a mess
From the 45 overtakes of the 2025 edition to the 120 of last Sunday: F1 wanted to highlight the data regarding the overtakes recorded during the Australian GP, but most of these did not result in a real change in the standings; just think of how many times Charles Leclerc and George Russell swapped positions without the Mercedes driver actually taking the lead of the race.
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Arvid Linblad for example, caught up in understandable enthusiasm, pushed himself for a few moments up to third place during the first lap, only to find himself fifth a few hundred meters later because he had exhausted the available energy. It was, however, widely predictable and understandable that the first race would be a sort of experiment for all the protagonists involved; in any case, the statements of Gabriel Bortoleto, for example, are still surprising, as he did not deny having made numerous overtakes ‘by mistake’ or at least not prepared or studied.
“It was very nice, I must say, but there is still a lot to learn – the words of the Audi driver reported by the publication motorsport.com – I made overtakes by mistake, overtakes I didn’t want to make, but that I made anyway because the car in front of me ran out of energy and tried to cut me off to defend. Last year everything was much more predictable, once you had made an overtake it was done, but now when you make an overtake you have to calculate the next three straights because maybe your opponent will pass you back, so you have to pass them again on the other straight, and it goes on like this until you find yourself having the same level of energy”. Audi’s debut in F1 was more than positive according to Bortoleto: “If they had told me that we would reach Q3 and that I would score points, I would have told whoever told me that they were drunk. What the team managed to do is incredible”.
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